Widgets Dedicated to User Interface Evaluation

Abstract

In this article, evaluation-based widgets are proposed as a contribution to assist evaluators for early evaluation of user interfaces. This contribution imbricates the ergonomic quality evaluation process into widgets used for user-interface graphical composition. In other words, these widgets evaluate themselves according to a defined set of ergonomic guidelines. The proposed widgets indicate the possible interface design ergonomic inconsistencies as a notification to the designer. The guidelines set can be modified through an interface dedicated to guidelines definition into XML files. The proposed widgets are intended for the evaluation of different kind of user interfaces: WIMP, web, and mobile. An experimental evaluation, involving these evaluation-based widgets, is proposed to illustrate and to validate the approach.

Notes

¹In several bibliographical resources, authors use the term “evaluation method.” In this article we opt for the term “evaluation technique.” This choice is due to the fact that a method is generally defined as an ordered set of principals, rules, steps, and so on. The technique is defined as a set of processes and practical means for an activity. Thus, we think that “technique” is the most adequate term due to the fact that generally there is not a well-ordered process for UI evaluation. Typically, evaluation tools are meant to automatically support some underlying evaluation techniques.

²THEA is a technique for designing interactive systems that are resilient to user erroneous actions, in which the evaluation takes place in the first stages of the software development cycle.

³WIMP is the acronym for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing devices. WIMP user interfaces are the traditional user interfaces in which the interaction is based on the mouse and the keyboard.

FIG. 1. Classification of the tools for user interface (UI) evaluation.

⁴To ensure usability tests, there are three types of questions: pretest questions, posttask questions, and posttest questions (Sauro & Dumas, 2009).

⁵WUI is the acronym for Web User Interface. They are the user interfaces specifically for web pages, and they are used through the Internet browser.

⁶http://us.blackberry.com/

⁷In the first phase of the interactive system development cycle, this approach grafts use-based features on the functional kernel, thus facilitating the evaluation phase. The approach is based on aspect-oriented programming and tasks.

⁸Dynamic Link Library: a format a file used by Windows operating system. It is used to contain library used by programs.

⁹WYSIWYG is the acronym for “What you see is what you get.” This acronym is used to indicate development environments that allow composing user interfaces visually.

¹⁰Note that a guideline can deal with more than one aspect (e.g., font color and control size); it is defined through two distinct guidelines (one aspect per guideline).

FIG. 10. The process of ergonomic guideline definition into XML file.

¹¹Like related aspects, the guideline can support only one operator by guideline. Thus, it is not possible to combine between several operators to define one guideline.

¹²The IAS is a cooperative project involving an industrial partner (Transvilles) and several research laboratories (LAGIS, LAMIH, and INRETS). This project is sponsored by the Nord-Pas de Calais regional authorities and by the FEDER (Fonds Européen de Développement Régional—European fund for regional development).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Selem Charfi

Selem Charfi obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Valenciennes (France) in 2013. His research concerns human–computer interaction (HCI), agent-based architecture models of interactive systems, software engineering, and HCI evaluation, with application to the supervision of transport systems. He is the coauthor of several papers in international conferences. He is involved in several research networks.

Abdelwaheb Trabelsi

Abdelwaheb Trabelsi obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Valenciennes (France) in 2006. He is an assistant professor in Computer Science at the University of Sfax (Tunisia). A member of the LOGIC laboratory, he is involved in several research networks and projects. He specializes in HCI and SE for interactive systems.

Houcine Ezzedine

Houcine Ezzedine obtained his Ph.D. in 1985. He is professor of Industrial Computer Science at the University of Valenciennes (France) and member of the “Human-Computer Interaction and Automated Reasoning” research group in the LAMIH. He is involved in several research networks, projects, and associations. He specializes in human–computer interaction and software engineering for interactive systems.

Christophe Kolski

Christophe Kolski obtained his Ph.D. in 1989. He specializes in human–computer interaction, software engineering for interactive system design and evaluation, adaptive User Interface, tangible and distributed interaction. He is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Valenciennes (France), and a member of the LAMIH laboratory.